see matt run

Another week, another Twitter scam. After being targeted in the latest round of this never-ending barrage of Twitter attacks, I had to look into why anybody in their right mind wants to hack into my Twitter account and all 130 of my measly followers (though I love you all!).

Turns out that our Twitter handles are merely stepping stones to a bigger payoff. Security experts from the Kaspersky Lab say that the latest trend in cyber scam artistry is to steal access to trusted networking platforms (from Computerworld) that can send out viruses to infect computers which then send out more messages to infect yet more computers, all the while stealing valuable info such as credit card numbers and bank account details. People seem to trust and click on Twitter messages so they make the perfect trojan horse (or in this case, perhaps, trojan whale), thereby making Twitter accounts the most sought-after deal on the black market. And because I know you’re wondering, here are the black market rates for various social media account info according to Kaspersky:

Twitter: up to $1,000 (worth noting that this was the asking price for an account with a super simple name that theoretically makes it easier to rip people off. “Tbonexxxloverxxx” probably wouldn’t go so high.)

Gmail: about $82 (or 2,500 roubles)

RapidShare, Skype, IM names and Facebook: $5 per month

MSN account: $1.40 (womp womp)

So even money-grubbing cyber criminals don’t give their stamp of approval to Microsoft. But when all is said and done, the bad guys are able to make off with about $1,000 per hacked computer. Hey, that’s just enough to buy a stolen Twitter account.